Canada Cup 1 softball extravaganza: OTSCL President Azeem Khan confident of hosting tourney

…Top Guyanese players to showcase talents

President of the Ontario Twilight Softball Cricket League (OTSCL), Azeem Khan, is confident that this year’s “Canada Cup 1” three-day softball extravaganza billed for September 2-4 would be successfully staged.

The Canada Cup has been rebranded after the three previous tournaments were held under the Toronto Cup, hosted by the Ontario Masters Softball Cricket Clubs (OMSCC).
A Guyanese based in Canada, Khan, who also served in the same capacity for the OMSCC, has said he is expecting teams from Guyana, Florida, Orlando, New York and Canada to participate.
“I [am] confident of us running off a great tournament; it will be the Labour Day long weekend in Canada and we want to make it an exciting event as well,” Khan related.
Mentioning that this tournament would be played in three categories: Legends (Over-50), Masters (Over-40) and the All-Stars, Khan declared that Canada Cup 1 has an organising committee set up to run the affairs of the tournament, and three former OMSCC members have already committed to serve. They are: Feisal Bacchus, Dickey Singh and veteran Sports Journalist Frederick Halley.
“This will be a huge softball tournament,” he declared. “Recently, I was in Florida, at the Florida Cup three-day softball tournament held by the Florida Softball Cricket League, and what I saw there was tremendous. Those players showed great love for softball cricket, especially playing in this kind of competition. We will continue to run the Canada Cup on a two-year basis,” Khan commented.
Khan said OTSCL would work in collaboration with other functional softball cricket leagues across the Greater Toronto Area to make the tournament a success, because he feels the entire cricketing fraternity should be involved.
The tournaments that were played in 2015, 2017 and 2019 had seen Guyanese businessman Ramesh Sunich sponsoring a large number of trophies, and he has already expressed his interest in making a similar donation.
A large number of high-profile softball players are expected to be on show. Among them are former Guyana first-class cricketers Sunil Dhaniram, Zaheer Haniff, Damodar Daesrath, Azib Ali Hanif, Hemnarine Chattergoon, Dillon Heyliger, Rovendra Mandolall, Eion Katchay, Naresh Roopnarine and Troy Gobin.